Women human rights defenders addressing the Human Rights Council in September 2025. Photo: ISHR
Ahead of International Women’s Day, ISHR and over 40 organisations supported a joint statement delivered by AWID calling for recognition of women and girls’ full dignity, equality and humanity, not just in words but in policies, in budgets, and implementation. Read the full statement below.
Today we will hear many well-intentioned statements about the importance of women’s rights. But such statements are empty without actions taken to stem rising authoritarianism, where governments around the world are ignoring, enabling or perpetrating a concerted and deliberate backlash against women’s rights, those who defend them, and civil society space. These governments redirect legitimate anger about inequalities onto scapegoated marginalised women, migrants, and LGBTI+ people, instead of towards accountability for those in power.
Simultaneously, we have seen a massive withdrawal of funding from human rights organisations in favour of increased militarisation; the impact of multiple situations of conflict, including genocides and situations at risk of genocide; and the rise in climate-related emergencies. These severely harm women and girls and impact their human rights, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights. For a peaceful and more just world, we need increased and sustainable investment in public services, feminist movements, human rights and multilateralism, not less. We urge governments to look beyond the next election cycle, to address economic inequalities, and to make long-term investments supporting communities and the most marginalised to build peaceful, sustainable societies based on mutual respect for the diversity of humanity.
What we need now are not empty words, but real change to the unequal and hypocritical global systems which reflect the legacies of colonialism. Every human rights gain won has been due to the efforts of grassroots movements. To keep these gains, movements must be supported. We need a UN that prioritises meaningful and safe engagement with women, girls, especially those living with intersecting forms of discrimination, and marginalised communities, that is driven by impact; and reform processes which are transparent, equitable, sustainable and inclusive, and center a human-rights approach, and which reflects the priorities of the global majority. It is a grave mistake to imagine peace, security or development efforts can successfully improve lives without the full realisation of all human rights in all efforts. Reform must strengthen the UN human rights pillar, ensuring accountability, universality, the interdependence of rights, and the independence of its mechanisms.
We deplore the global retrogression on women’s and girls’ rights and increasing normalisation of violence, dehumanisation, authoritarianism and misogyny that is killing women and girls.
We call for recognition of women and girls’ full dignity, equality and humanity, not just in words but in policies, in budgets, and implementation: their leadership in political, social, economic and peace-building spheres; their full bodily autonomy; the value of their unpaid care; and the recognition of full diversity of their intersectional experiences.
Signed by:
UN human rights mechanisms examined the situation in Guatemala regarding the right to adequate housing and racial discrimination, calling for an end to forced evictions against Indigenous communities and for the protection of land defenders, including Indigenous Peoples.
During the 38th Human Rights Council special session on the human rights situation in and around El Fasher, in the context of the ongoing conflict in Sudan, ISHR delivered a joint statement with Sudanese Women’s Rights Action, and the Regional Coalition for Women Human Rights Defenders in South West Asia and North Africa.
The NGO Forum, ahead of the 85th ACHPR’s session in Banjul, held several panel discussions on the AU 2025 theme 'Reparations: Justice for Africans and People of African Descent' with different focuses, including the regional and UN standards on reparations, economic justice, as well as discrimination in Africa based on work and descent.
